Starting June 2012 customers are “requested” to start opening IBM Serbice Requests (SR) using the electronic support portal and from 2013 only electronic entry will be possible for severity 2, 3 and 4. This is in no way a surprise and makes IBM move funds from the probably costly phone based support they are offering now and probably also makes a lot more sense for supplying all the relevant information. This is all well and good so long the quality of the data entry forms are top notch. More information can be found at the announcement.
5 thoughts on “IBM moving to electronic support only”
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lekkimworld.com 
Selling less for more hardly ever is a good thing, at least for the customer.
I consider this a bad move but IBM is not alone. Customer service nowadays seems to be a perfect place for saving money.
People need customer support when their product does not work (or at least they think so). The more channels you have for solving such problems the better it is. And neither the entry forms nor the eletronic support portal are "top notch" and they probably never will.
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I imagine Watson will be answering the emails.
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I guess they can find a better random answer generator than that 🙂
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While I have no problems with electronic submissions, it makes many assumptions about the expertise of the submitter, the availability of the electronic support system, the prior setup of the submitter to be properly provisioned to submit technical requests, the expertise behind the various Passport Advantage roles, etc. When all of the pieces are in place and there is a very high level of expertise, the system works fine. We often see where there is a failure in the ability to submit an ESR in a prompt manner due to one of the assumptions being invalid. When there is a problem causing angst among humans due to a computer not operating as desired, humans are often necessary to mitigate the emotion and get the process started.
For support, continuing to having multiple entry patterns and informal means to triage requests is critical.
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Thank you for all your comments. We at IBM do understand that there will be situations where use of the SR tool will not be possible and you will need to talk to someone to get the ticket answered. We are trying to get clients who are not having issues used to using the SR tool. We put significant investment into the SR tool and the IBM support portal. We do encourage feedback on the tools (via the feedback mechanisms available on both tools) as we take and analyze all the feedback. We are commited to providing the best support web experience. One final comment, the rationale behind is this really client focused. We believe that if you get used to the Support Portal and SR, you will be able to solve some problems yourself, which most clients actually prefer, and when you need to request assistance, we will be able to get the correct technical resource working your problem in a more efficient and effective manner.
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